Statement by Chargé d'Affaires of the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Mr. Petr Illiichev, at the Security Council on countering foreign terrorists

21 December 2017

Our delegation voted in favour of resolution 2396 (2017).

We share the view that the mass outflow of fighters from areas of armed conflict, first and foremost from Syria and Iraq, entails additional threats to security and requires an appropriate response from the Council.

We consider that this document does not cancel earlier decisions of the United Nations on fighting terrorism but, rather, complements them. Of special importance here are the commitments to criminalize various aspects of terrorist activity as well as the prosecute or extradite rule, as enshrined in the anti-terrorist conventions and resolutions of the Security Council.

It is vital to ensure that they are implemented in full, while being guided by the principles of the inevitability of punishment and the punishment being commensurate with the crime. Any attempts to extend either direct or indirect assistance to returning terrorist fighters, including providing them with the possibility to move freely, recruit new members and incite to terrorism, would be a direct violation of the resolution that we adopted today. Rehabilitation and reintegration programmes cannot be used as an alternative to the criminal prosecution of these kinds of criminals.

We also note that it is important to develop international cooperation in order to combat foreign terrorist fighters. We attach special importance to the provisions of the resolution on information exchange. In this regard, a meeting of the heads of special services, security agencies and law-enforcement organizations is held every year in Russia, and we also have a databank on combating terrorism.

They both have proved their worth. Within the framework of working with returning foreign terrorist fighters, we need to bear in mind that S/PV.8148 Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts 21/12/2017 6/9 17-45781 one of the key aims of terrorists is to spread the ideology of terror everywhere.

We think that it is only right that the document we have adopted today represents a development of many of the provisions of Security Council resolution 2354 (2017), on countering terrorist narratives. Overall, we must continue improving the criminal and legal measures we have in this area. If we limit ourselves to abstract slogans, the battle for the hearts and minds of young people will be lost.

We will be able to attain results in countering the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters only if we act collectively, with States in the leading role, and by tapping the potential of specialized international organizations, the private sector and civil society structures.

All anti-terrorist measures should be adopted in compliance with the norms of international law and in line with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We expect the new resolution on countering foreign terrorist fighters to contribute substantively to that kind of work.